The Hanson slag grinding plant at Teesport was taken out of action eight years ago during the economic recession.

But what the firm is calling a “continuing upturn in construction activity” prompted Hanson to return to the site last year and prepare for reopening.

The plant takes blast furnace slag - a byproduct of the steel industry - and grinds it into a fine powder for use as a cement substitute in ready-mixed concrete. The raw material was originally sourced from the now closed Redcar steelworks. In future, says Hanson, it will be imported, “helping to sustain the docks”.

Site manager Duncan Felgate said: “It has taken nine months to get up and running again. One of the main problems we had to overcome was to replace all the copper wiring, which had been meticulously stripped out by thieves.”

The £2m project to re-open the site was completed on time and on budget and the new staff have all been put through a comprehensive technical and operational training programme.

Some of them have returned to Hanson, having been at the works before it was mothballed, but most are new starters.

Hanson sells its ground granulated blast furnace slag under the Regen brand name and operates a further two UK production plants at Purfleet in Essex and Port Talbot in south Wales. Regen is in high demand as a sustainable alternative to cement in ready-mixed and precast concrete.

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Replacing one tonne of cement in concrete with Regen reduces the embodied CO2 by around 900kg, and increases its durability. It is added at the mixing plant and can replace as much as 90% of the cement content.